Abu Dhabi taxi driver robbed of Dh4,000 'leave cash' by gang

Police hunt on for thieves

Abu Dhabi police are in search of a three-member gang who allegedly robbed a taxi driver early on Tuesday morning.

The taxi driver was scheduled to go on leave in two weeks and had borrowed Dh4000 from his friends. He had the money in his dashboard.

The incident occurred at around 6:30am when Prasanth, aged 42, was on his routine shift.

According to him, three men got into the taxi near the Municipal Office stating that they wanted to go to Khalifa Street.

Two men got in the back, while one of them sat in front. After a while they changed their mind and said they wanted to be dropped off at Khalidiya.

“Once we reached there only one of the passengers, who was sitting in front got down. One of the passengers who was sitting behind came and sat in front. They then said they wanted to go to Khalifa Street,” said Prasanth.

“However as we reached closer to the Regency Hotel, they wanted me to park the car by the side and said they were waiting for one more person. After about 10 minutes, I told then I could not wait any more,” he added.

The man sitting in the rear seat then got down and came out and stood next to the driver’s seat and took out Dh5. “He again was digging into his wallet to take out the remaining amount. That’s when the man sitting in the front seat just opened the dashboard, took the cash and jumped out of the car. Both of them started running in opposite directions and soon disappeared,” he added.

Prasanth immediately informed the police who arrived at the scene and managed to obtain the CCTV camera footage. Prasanth believes that the men who were aware of the presence of money in the dash-board could have planned the incident. Police are investigating the case.